TPT Meet Up in Burlington!

I am finally getting around to blogging about the TPT meet up that I went to in Burlington on July 22nd.  Karen and Talya from Teachers Pay Teachers came to meet some Canadian sellers and pick our brains about how they can reach our target market a little better.

Tuesday, Julie, from Plaisirs du primaire, and I drove from the Sudbury area, which is close to a 4.5 hr drive. We were so excited to meet all these wonderful teacher sellers who we've gotten to know online over the last couple of years!

Julie and I, on our way to Burlington!

When we finally made it to the Greater Toronto Area, we (of course) had to do a bit of shopping.  That's what us northerners do when we go to Toronto!  Plus, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to buy a total of $200 worth of stickers at half off!

We then met Erin from Mrs. Beattie's Classroom and Christina from Hanging Around in Primary as they were staying at the same hotel we were.  It was amazing to finally meet them in person!  We all felt like we knew each other so well already!

Me, Erin, Christina and Julie

The four of us then went to Kristy's house, from 2 Peas and a Dog, for supper.  Patti from Madly Learning also met us there.  We had a blast!  We talked about everything ...house decor, our families, our classrooms and, of course, our stores, blogs etc  There was lots of giggles and tip sharing.  By 9:30pm, Julie and I were absolutely exhausted from the trip (and from the fact that neither one of us could sleep well the night before because of the excitement), so we headed back to the hotel.  We were so tired that we forgot all about taking a group picture (but we made up for it the next day)!

Erin, Kristy, Patti, Julie, me and Christina

That night, hanging around with Julie was just like the sleepovers I had when I was a kid.  We had junk food, traded stickers, gossiped and laughed like crazy.  What a wonderful night!

The next morning, we made a quick trip to the farmer's market, then headed on over to Emma's Back Porch for the meet up.  Right away, when we walked in, Karen gave us a huge hug, as if we knew each other.  It. Was. AWESOME!  Her and Talya were so friendly! They asked us tons of questions about the teaching situation in Ontario and about our schools and our classrooms (after asking if our winters were cold!).

We spent about an hour mingling with over 40 other teacher sellers from the area.  We met Margie from Coach's Corner, Tina from Tina's Teaching Treasures, Heidi from Secondgradealicious (who had her beautiful baby girl with her), Najda from Garden Full of Knowledge, Tammy from Teaching FSL... and the list goes on and on.  It was thrilling to put a face behind the store button and logo!

Tina, Patti and I

We had lunch and Talya and Karen did a quick presentation about why they were there.  The Canadian seller and buyer markets are growing very quickly on TpT right now.  They were basically looking for ways to better meet our needs as sellers, but also as buyers.

After some discussion time, we took a group photo (I'm so sorry to the few that were cut out of the picture...my phone was on a weird setting!  I was so mad!)  and videotaped a song that Ahn-Thi from Tangstar Science prepared for us.  Look for it on the TPT Blog soon!

Before we left for our long drive, Julie and I gave Karen and Talya a gift of homemade wild blueberry jam (Sudbury is known for it's wild blueberries) and strawberry jam.  We also gave them a basket full of maple candies for the TPT staff room on behalf the of  TPT Eh Team.  They loved the treats.

A quick stop at Ikea, and we were on our way home.  I got home and crawled into bed around 11:30pm Wednesday night.  I was absolutely exhausted, but exhilarated after 48  hours of emotions, inspiration and fun.  I look forward to connecting with everyone again soon and am grateful for the amazing friendships that have been created over the years.